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Scotland will have £800 million extra to spend next year thanks entirely to the generosity of the UK’s Barnett formula but the SNP has given schools and hospitals an “unflattering settlement”, according to an analysis of the Scottish Budget.

Professor John McLaren, an eminent economist, said last week’s budget showed ministers will receive a “considerable rise” in spending money in 2017/18, despite their repeated complaints about Tory austerity.

He also launched an outspoken attack on the “duplicitous” manner in which the Scottish Government presented its budget figures, saying it was “impossible” to justify from the published information the SNP’s claim that council spending was increasing by £240 million.

Instead he calculated there was “no increase, let alone one of £240 million” and warned this “makes the schools budget difficult to prioritise” given most of their funding comes from local government.

The economist found the entire cost of the SNP’s pledge to spend an extra £500 million on the NHS was coming from additional funds allocated to Scotland thanks to higher health spending in England.

Writing for his Scottish Trends website, he concluded that Mr Mackay has merely tweaked decisions made by Chancellor Philip Hammond rather than make distinctly different choices to suit Scotland’s needs.

It came after a former adviser to Alex Salmond described the budget as “cowardly” and accused the SNP of insulting voters’ intelligence by pretending it differed markedly from the spending choices made by the Tories in England.

The Scottish Parliament now has control over income tax on earnings

Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Tories’ Shadow Finance Minister, said: “After complaining for years about the United Kingdom, this analysis blows a hole in the SNP's grievance agenda.

“As this paper shows, there will be an extra £800 million for the Scottish Government to spend on public services and infrastructure next year. None of this extra cash is due to the SNP's own decisions, it is all due to the Union dividend we receive thanks to being members of the UK.”

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s economy spokesman, said the analysis “adds to the growing consensus that the SNP has passed up the chance to use the tax powers of the Scottish Parliament to do things differently.”

Alex Bell, a Scottish Government special adviser in Alex Salmond’s government, used his column in yesterday’s Sunday Mail to state that SNP ministers were “cowards one and all” for refusing to use the new powers to raise more funds by increasing taxes on wealth.

He concluded: “The draft budget is a white flag raised by a leadership who don’t have the courage of their convictions.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said it had been forced to cope with a real terms cut of nine per cent in its block grant since 2010 and Mr Mackay’s spending plans were a “Budget for growth and public services.”

He added: “The Scottish Government’s spending plans exercise our new powers responsibly, marking a significant step in the history of the Scottish Parliament.”